Jesse We Need To Cook

Submission 156

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About

Jesse We Need To Cook is a catchphrase inspired by the television show Breaking Bad. The quote is typically attributed to Walter White (Bryan Cranston), the protagonist and anti-villain of the show, who's speaking to Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Memes using the catchphrase, "Jesse, we have to cook" can be traced as far back as 2011, however, the phrase "Jesse, we need to cook" was popularized further as the decade progressed. While Walter says "we have to cook" multiple times over the course of the show, the line "Jesse, we need to cook," was largely perpetuated by fans.

Origin

The show Breaking Bad aired between 2008 and 2013, following Walter White as he goes from high school chemistry teacher to drug kingpin with the help of Jesse Pinkman, a local drug dealer. While Walter White never delivers the exact line "Jesse, we need to cook," he does say "We have to cook" in season 2, episode 9 "4 Days Out" (seen below). White also says "Jesse, let it go, we need to cook," in season 3, episode 10 "The Fly."^[1]

The earliest known notable meme featuring White saying the catchphrase is an Advice Animals image macro meme posted to Reddit's^[2] /r/breakingbad on December 31st, 2011. The post gathered over 640 upvotes in 13 years (seen below).

Spread

A January 9th, 2013, post on the Facebook^[4] page Cubone the Destroyer is the earliest known instance of the line "Jesse, we need to cook" being posted as a meme online (seen below, left). Memes featuring the phrase "Jesse we have to cook" made the rounds in the early 2010s, as seen in a Stare Dad meme posted to Know Your Meme^[3] on February 15th, 2013, where it gathered over 5,000 views in 11 years (seen below, right).

On June 15th, 2015, the YouTube^[5] channel "Their Dogs Were Astronauts" posted a meme edit of Walter White saying "Jesse we have to cook," gathering over 30,000 likes in nine years (seen below).

On March 4th, 2022, the phrase appeared in a webcomic posted to /r/breakingbad,^[6] where it gathered over 3,000 upvotes in two years. On August 5th, X^[7] user @Spaicy_Project posted a Sonic The Hedgehog edit of the meme, gathering over 20,000 likes in two years (seen below, right).